This is an excellent article which gives a great picture of life as a grunt. Although I'm an Army guy I have to say that institutionally the Marines have known this all along- while the Army has to relearn this lesson every generation. The soldiers of the Army's 82d, 101st and 10th Mtn Divisions and 173d Abn Bde know and have been living and fighting exactly this way in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan for 8 years- but institutionally 10 years from now there will again be some genious talking in the War Colleges about a "revolution in military affairs" that will allow us to engage in "asymmetric warfare" or "netcentric warfare"- all of which will discount the resolve and resilience of a determined enemy, overstate the ability of our gadgets to determine the enemies intent and staying power, overemphasize CS and CSS services, and undervalue the requirement for hard, well trained grunts to physically seize and occupy the terrain. The Marines though will not have undervalued it or lessened their preparedness to deal with this reality of warfare.
Semper Fi Marines!

MARJA, AFGHANISTAN -- They had slogged through knee-deep mud carrying 100 pounds of gear, fingers glued to the triggers of their M-4 carbines, all the while on the lookout for insurgents. Now, after five near-sleepless nights, trying to avoid hypothermia in freezing temperatures, the grunts of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment finally had a moment to relax....
...For all the talk of a modern war -- of Predator drones and satellite-guided bombs and mine-resistant vehicles -- most Marines in this operation have been fighting the old-fashioned way: on foot, with rifle.

They hump their kit on their backs, bed down under the stars in abandoned compounds and defecate in plastic bags....

Picture 11 shows 4 Marines with 3 Lab looking dogs. They look healthy so I assume that the dogs belong to the Marines. I have heard that there are dogs there to help find IED's. Being the dog lover that I am ( especially Labs!) what a great service that these canines perform for our soldiers as well as being loyal companions.

On our way home from the Army-Navy game this past November, we were on a plane from Philly to Atlanta and there was a German Shepherd ON our plane heading to Iraq. He was with a soldier and the shepherd sat in the aisle of the plane. Sat there the whole time! Didn't move when the flight attendants or anyone else passed him! I need to get a soldier to train my dogs!